Enviable Finish in Vuelta a España Can’t Brighten Team Sky’s Mediocre Season

MONTREAL — For much of Team Sky’s history, the black, custom-built buses that deliver its riders to most races were informally known as the Death Stars because of the team’s extraordinary dominance.

There has not been much of that kind of talk this season, however. Despite what is widely believed to be the biggest budget in cycling and an embarrassment of talent that includes the former Tour de France winners Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome, the team that other riders once feared now struggles. By Sunday, after starting the year third, Sky was 10th out of 18 teams in the International Cycling Union’s WorldTour points ranking.

Froome, who abandoned this year’s Tour after repeatedly crashing, finished second to Alberto Contador, another Tour crash victim, in the Vuelta a España, the last of this season’s three-week grand tours, which ended Sunday.

While many riders dream of second place at the Vuelta, Froome’s performance was well short of impressive. Once so formidable a climber that he attracted inevitable questions about doping, Froome repeatedly lost contact with the lead pack on mountain passes — even, at times, when his teammates were setting the pace. And Froome, once a time trialist without peer, finished 10th in the Vuelta’s only major test against the clock.

Across the ocean on Sunday, at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal, the final WorldTour series event before the world championships, Sky’s riders were almost invisible. But Sky’s misfortunes have not extended to its alumni. The winner in Montreal and Friday’s WorldTour race in Quebec City was Simon Gerrans, an Australian who raced for Sky before switching to the Orica-GreenEdge team last season.

The fortunes of cycling teams ebb and flow. But Sky’s rise as the first significant and successful British team in modern cycling history and its now dismal showing create a striking contrast. No single factor seems to lie behind the decline. Illnesses, changes to the roster of riders and some perhaps ill-conceived management decisions are cited by many. But former Sky riders and team managers now with other teams also cite complacency and the adoption of Sky’s methods by other teams as pivotal factors.

Sky is largely the creation of Dave Brailsford, who was hired by British Cycling, the national federation. Bankrupt in 1996, the federation was revitalized with national lottery money. Brailsford built a program that started with the development of young amateur cyclists, mainly on the track, a branch of the sport in which Britain was still competitive at the time.

Underwritten by sponsorship from companies controlled by Rupert Murdoch — and under the patronage of Murdoch’s son James — Sky started in 2010. In what seemed like an audacious boast, Brailsford vowed to produce a British Tour de France winner within five years.

While some cycling teams, notably the U.S. Postal Service squad of Lance Armstrong, devoted much study to science (particularly with doping), cycling teams have often relied as much on tradition. Brailsford questioned everything. No piece of equipment, no training method, no race strategy was left unexamined.

Brailsford reached far beyond the sport for expertise. Steve Peters, the team’s in-house psychiatrist, had spent most of his career at a high-security psychiatric hospital and had no experience in cycling. Aerodynamic experts from Formula One auto racing introduced skintight clothing for all races, not just time trials; all teams have since adopted the fashion.

That led to a highly controlled organization. Sky’s riders, for instance, carry power meters on their bikes and are often given instructions, by radio or in advance, on how many watts to produce on climbs or at key moments.

The result was Wiggins’s Tour de France win in 2012, years before Brailsford’s deadline. It was followed by Froome’s win the following season.

As is well known, however, Froome and Wiggins do not get along, a problem that led to Brailsford’s decision to leave Wiggins behind during this year’s Tour. After Froome crashed and abandoned the event, the team found itself without a contender.

A spokesman for Sky acknowledged the team’s poor showing but said that neither Brailsford nor anyone else was available for comment.

As for Gerrans, Sky is in the past.

“I can’t really comment about what’s going on at Sky,” he said under a tent before the start of Sunday’s race. He pointed to Sky’s tent and added, “Better talk to these guys.”